Meanwhile, a Senior Fraud Specialist from the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has some advice for Canadians when it comes to dealing with scammers.
Daniel Williams says scammers try to keep people off balance and emotional and you should always verify information as much as possible.
He says while scams might be sophisticated, their cookie cutter approach gives you an advantage.
“They leave a massive footprint behind that you can verify very, very easily online, and even if you don’t have access to online, a couple of phone calls, a little bit of research and you’ve got them dead in their tracks,” says Williams.
He says whether they are pretending to the Canada Revenue Agency or your bank, you should always call them directly yourself to find the truth.
Williams says you should gather as much information as possible about your scammers, while giving as little as possible away.
He adds it’s critical people report any interactions with scammers to the proper authorities.
“There’s nothing they hate more than a victim who will make an awful lot of noise about the issue with their local police, with us, going to the media, telling their friends, putting it up on their Facebook,” says Williams.
Williams says the very first thing you should do if you’ve been scammed is to reach out to whatever financial institution you used to send money and try to stop payment.
He says you have on average between 15 minutes to a day depending on the method to stop the money.
“After that it would be your local police, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, let every institution that was part of the scam let them know that the scammers used that shipping address, that account number, the whole nine yards,” says Williams. “You want to report it as fully as you can.”
You can reach the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre HERE
If you get a call saying you owe money to the CRA, you can check online or call the CRA directly to verify #FPM2016 https://t.co/OZDo15tQMT
— Canadian Anti-Fraud (@canantifraud) March 7, 2016
